The 5 Worst Marvel Movies to Rewatch Before Avengers: Doomsday
The wait for Avengers: Doomsday is nearly over, with plot details and trailers slowly but steadily spilling out ahead of the film’s release in December.
The last six years of the MCU have all led to this moment, and a lot has happened during that time to alter the path the heroes (and villains) are on for this monumental event. Kang has been and gone, Robert Downey Jr. has left the franchise and returned, and 15 more movies have followed Avengers: Endgame.
Not all of them have been good, though. In fact, Phase 4 and Phase 5 has been a tricky time for Marvel with box-office bombs and critical failures. Unfortunately, the following five movies are essential viewing ahead of Doomsday, even though they’re pretty poor entries into the timeline.
Any film that has Harrison Ford turning into a big, red rage monster should be an absolute blast, but in the case of Captain America: Brave New World that is, sadly, the only real positive to speak of. Ford is clearly having a lot of fun taking over the role of President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, but the rest of the cast didn’t seem to get the memo, and the film ends up feeling stagnant and messy from a narrative perspective.
However, if you are gearing up for Doomsday, you really do need to know where the new Captain America, Sam Wilson, is at. After taking on the shield, Sam has a lot of existential doubts to deal with, but he comes out of the other side feeling full of purpose after proving himself in this movie. The film also lays the groundwork for his new roster of Avengers, a team that’ll be key to fighting Doctor Doom.
The God of Thunder will be back alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes when Doom comes to town, and based on the reported footage shown at CinemaCon, Thor will be one of the first to take on the new big bad of the MCU. Clearly, then, we need to look back at the last time we saw Thor, as painful as that may be.
While Christian Bale brought his A-game here as the villain, Gorr the God Butcher, the technical elements of Thor: Love and Thunder really let everybody down. The CGI was some of the worst you’re likely to see in a modern blockbuster, and the sloppy visuals completely undermined the rather emotional storyline surrounding Jane Foster’s illness.
Speaking of jarring visual effects, remember what MODOK looked like in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? To be fair, a lot of the Quantum Realm was pretty stunning, but the squashed face of Corey Stoll is all that this film will be remembered for.
What’s really weird about this Ant-Man threequel is that it should have been one of the most important entries in the MCU post-Endgame, for the fact it introduces us to the Council of Kangs. But, with Jonathan Majors fired and Kang out of the picture, Marvel changed course dramatically and that led them to Doom. In a way, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is still essential viewing, though, albeit more as a reflection of what could have been rather than what will come to pass later this year.
In my opinion, The Marvels is the best film on this list and is pretty harmless. However, it took a beating from critics and failed miserably at the box-office, and stands as one of the biggest catastrophes in Marvel’s run of films in the 2020s. While it’s got some very cool action sequences and fun character development, I can see why some people were unhappy with this movie – the fact it’s got a big, cheesy musical number shoehorned in the middle of it really didn’t help matters.
The biggest problem with The Marvels, though, is that the storyline just wasn’t that interesting or coherent. Compounded with one of the more forgettable villains in the MCU, this Nia DaCosta flick was destined for disappointment. Still, the post-credit scene re-introduces Beast from the original X-Men movies, and we know those mutants are going to be heavily involved in Doomsday, so that stinger alone makes this film a worthwhile watch.
Speaking of mutants, revisiting the old X-Men franchise is a must ahead of the release of Avengers: Doomsday, and that means you’ll be experiencing two of the best superhero movies of the 21st century. Regrettably, it also means you’ll have to watch X-Men: The Last Stand again, too.
Not only does this movie botch the character arcs of major players in the X-Men team by rushing the narrative and giving them poorly-handled deaths, it also manages to mess up the Dark Phoenix storyline, which really should never be possible given how intriguing and cool that particular concept is. The problem is Fox tried to bring together that storyline and the whole Mutant Cure arc in one movie, creating a messy concoction that did neither of those ideas any kind of justice.
All of these movies are available on Disney Plus. You might not particularly want to watch them, but you really should if you want to feel the full effect of Avengers: Doomsday on December 18.
